On Sunday, Cuban President Raul Castro announced he will step down from power after his second term ends in 2018. The 81-year-old leader made that comment shortly after the National Assembly elected him to a second five-year tenure.
In what the Reuters News Agency called a surprise move, the new parliament also named Miguel Diaz-Canel as first vice president, meaning he's next in line if Castro cannot serve his full term. So by 2018 (or sooner), Castro will no longer lead the Cuban people; whether that will make any difference in the U.S. changing its policies toward the Communist nation remains in question.
Some people think the time to end the five-decades long economic embargo has already come, and one of those advocates is Al Fox with the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation in Tampa. Next month his group, along with The Center for International Policy, hosts a two-day seminar in Tampa that features Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Miami-based Democrat Joe Garcia.
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2013.